Waiting for location permission...

Broadcast and play with friends

Waiting for location permission...

This site uses Cookies for basic functionality for visitors who have accounts with us. Also, our trusted and reputable third party advertisers use cookies to determine which ads to serve.

We care a lot about your privacy and making sure that your experience on this site is a safe one, and in that effort we store as little information as possible. You can read more about that in our 2018 GDPR statement here.

Please accept our terms of use which can be found here. If you have any questions, or you do not agree and would like us to opt you out, please contact us using the contact form.

3 weeks ago

First off, congrats on your 2-1 finish! That’s an excellent showing! I’m thrilled to hear you decided to take the deck for a spin, and did so well with it! I also really, really enjoyed your tournament report — thank you so much for posting it. Seriously, it made my day. Well-written and fun to read. I really got a kick out of it. Keep them coming!!

I’m also glad that your second opponent enjoyed the deck! I humbly thank him for his compliments.

Now, let’s talk strategy. I agree with you that generally it is more correct to mainboard the full playset of
Duress
and to keep
Fiery Cannonade
on the sideboard. The general metagame simply has too many rich targets for the card, and too many cards that can wreck your game unless you snag them. Also, I’d note, too, that without
Duress
, control decks are extremely tough to beat in Game 1. I think
Duress
is the way to go for now.

First, let me try to answer your questions.

1) “First, when you sideboard, what cards do you tend to pull to make room?”

Generally, my matchups tend to fall into one of three broad categories: control, midrange, or aggro. What follows are my general sideboard approaches to the three, and reasons why. Keep in mind that all decks are different, though, so tweak your plans based on your observations and instincts in the moment.

Aggro is about keeping your opponent’s creatures at bay while attacking with your own. These matchups are often a race, so your life total is precious. Hence,
Ruin Raider
is out. Since aggro usually runs lots of low-toughness creatures, Cannonade does big work here. Most aggro lists run comparatively few spells, so you can leave
Duress
behind here most of the time. Adding in lots of removal helps make sure you will stay alive. If your opponent does the same thing, you can consider sneaking in some
March of the Drowned
for Game 3.

Midrange: -4x
Rigging Runner
, everything else depends; bring in various cards that “seem good” against what the opponent is doing

It’s hard to neatly categorize midrange decks because there’s so much diversity in this broad group. Basically, these decks all share one aspect — they all want to grind. They tend to have lots of removal, lots of creatures that double as spells and provide incidental value (
Ravenous Chupacabra
is a great example), and piles of late-game threats like
Doom Whisperer
and
Carnage Tyrant
that can win the game if unanswered. In general,
Rigging Runner
is weak against decks that want to grind because it is such a poor draw late in the game. So almost always, he comes out. What do you put in? Almost always some number of
March of the Drowned
because these decks are so grindy and removal-heavy, usually at least a couple of hard removal spells like
Cast Down
to deal with any game-winning creatures they resolve late in the game, and maybe even
Fiery Cannonade
if they have a substantial suite of creatures that lie lower on the mana curve (mana dorks like
Llanowar Elves
ramp decks are good fodder for
Fiery Cannonade
).
Sorcerous Spyglass
is great against midrange decks using lots of planeswalkers. You’ll have to often tweak things and use your judgment here.

Control: I’ll make it easy here, just do this exact sideboard.

-4x
Rigging Runner
, -4x
Lava Coil
, -1x
Dire Fleet Poisoner
; +4x
March of the Drowned
, +2x
Sorcerous Spyglass
, +3x
Price of Fame
. You want as much card draw (
Ruin Raider
) and recursion as you can get here, and you want as many
Duress
effects as possible.
Price of Fame
will kill their finishers apart from hexproof threats (especially good against
Lyra Dawnbringer
) and help fix the top of your deck so you can close out the game (surveil also works pretty well with
March of the Drowned
). Note that if they’re on the
Rekindling Phoenix
plan that you’ll want to hang onto some
Lava Coil
s, too. If you do this sideboard, you’ll stop them cold almost every time. You just have too many ways to disrupt their plan, and either to prevent or recover from their sweepers. There’s a certain skill of playing against control, too, so you will need to get the hang of it. It’s not easy, and it’s a different approach to the game. Avoiding overcommitment to the board if you fear a sweeper, playing around a
Settle the Wreckage
, deciding which cards to cast into countermagic — all of these are decisions you must make correctly if you want to defeat the control player.

2) what plans do you have to include cards from Allegiance?

Well, aside from the obvious upgrades of the shock lands (
Blood Crypt
) being inserted in place of 4 basic lands, I opted to put in 3
Bedevil
in place of three of the targeted removal spells I previously used on the sideboard (one
Cast Down
, and two
Price of Fame
).
Bedevil
hits so many things. Now I can hit either Lyra or Teferi against control, and we even have an option against artifacts.

Re:
Theater of Horrors
and
Light Up the Stage
...I feel that we have plenty of card advantage in
Ruin Raider
and
Dire Fleet Daredevil
(the Daredevil does provide free cards quite often). And they are on-theme as a creatures and as Pirates. The Theater though, is a really good card and worth a try. It provides damage and cards, both very good against control. I’m not a huge fan of exiling cards face-up because it robs
Dire Fleet Poisoner
of its surprise factor and therefore much of its power. Still, if the Theater lands against control, it could be very, very good. However, I feel we are already strong against control, so I’m not sure we need it. I think these cards are good though, and you could very well be onto something. If you do incorporate them into your build, I’d love to hear how they perform.

Remember you can always read my updates posted to this deck page for my tournament reports. I give some info about how matches and sideboard decisions turn out, if a bit choppily put at times. We are Pirates, after all!

Thanks again for the comment — I’m super happy and flattered to hear you are enjoying the deck. I’m looking forward to hearing about your further successes!

For single target kill spells:
Sever the Bloodline
is a bit overcosted for most targets but is a pretty good token killer,
Price of Fame
is cheap enough if targeting opposing commanders and lets you dig through your library looking for answers.
Tragic Slip
is low CMC and can be a way around indestructible.

3 weeks ago

Tonight I played in my first FNM since returning to the game. I have assembled some decks of my own and played a few casual games, but for my first constructed competition, I wanted something that I felt would not lead to abject failure. I ran a clone of your deck. Wow.

There were only six people so we played a causal structure with just three matches. Your beautiful deck went 2 and 1.

I was totally clueless to the meta, so I used the original build that included the
Fiery Cannonade
. Unfortunately, I would have been better off with the
Duress
package.

The first opponent was a very experienced player (it was his card shop) using a Dimir control/midrange that relied heavily on surveil for card advantage and to fuel some 2nd and 3rd turn
Dimir Spybug
s in the first game. Unfortunately I had to mulligan having drawn only one land. The next hand had two but I failed to draw another until the fifth turn. By then, one of the bugs was 4/4, the other was 3/3, and we had traded blows with the smaller pirates I had been able cast. Luckily, my third land let me launch a
Fiery Cannonade
that took out the smaller bug (alas, the heroic
Rigging Runner
it had blocked didn't make it) as well as the two
Nightveil Sprite
s that had pumped the bugs. Next turn I was able to cast a
Kitesail Freebooter
and when I sent a full charge the next turn, he blocked with his big (now 6/6) bug only to find a flash-cast
Dire Fleet Poisoner
helping out the Freebooter. Hurrah. I was able to drop in a
Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
and the game was quickly over. For the second game, I sideboarded in the
Duress
package as well as the
Cast Down
s and
Price of Fame
s. I used two of the
Duress
to great effect snagging countermagic both times, and the
Cast Down
s were useful against a wide variety of Dimir nasties like
Dream Eater
,
Nightveil Predator
, and
Thief of Sanity
. It took a bit of time, but I finally defeated my opponent after dropping two Neckbreakers for a big charge.

My second opponent was another recent returnee to Magic--we both tend to play with out land in front on the battlefield as was illustrated in the original MTG instruction pamphlet. He was playing an unmodified Ral Planeswalker deck. The speed of the pirate deck made short work of him in about ten minutes. For the remaining time, we swapped decks and played again. He wasn't familiar with the cards or mechanics so it was drawn out, but he was winning when the other matches ended. He also sends you compliments on the pirates...Arg.

Third match was against the winner from the other bracket. The player is the local judge, and she lives and breathes the game. She was playing a Teferi control deck. The deck was four colors (no green) and the manabase cost enough to feed a small goblin tribe for a decade--there were no basic lands. The first game I was able to get a decent start and was able to do significant damage before she cleared the board with a
Deafening Clarion
. She then dropped a Lyra which I was unable to answer and that game was soon over.

I almost swapped in the entire sideboard, leaving out only one of the
March of the Drowned
. I had a decent draw, but unfortunately, the three lands--two swamps and an
Unclaimed Territory
were the only land cards I drew for at least six turns. I was able to cast some pirates and did draw both
Sorcerous Spyglass
s and used them both against Teferi (the first was destroyed). Unfortunately, she cast a
Rekindling Phoenix
and without any regular red mana sources, the only way I could get rid of it was to use two
Cast Down
s, first during her turn, then during mine. The next turn, she cast another. After finally dropping a mountain, I was able to
Lava Coil
the buzzard and got in a few decent hits before the bitch Lyra hit the board again. Luckily, I drew into a
Price of Fame
and got rid of it, only to have her cast another. I did try to use a Dire Fleet Daredevil to borrow one of her creature kills, but she counterspelled him. My demise was as quick as it was inevitable.

Overall, the deck did well. I don't know enough about the Teferi deck to figure out what else I could have done against it, but the second round would have been much closer if I had not been mana hosed.

Having successfully used the deck, I have two questions. First, when you sideboard, what cards do you tend to pull to make room? I figure it is rather situational based on what the opponent's deck looked like in the first game, but what are the most likely cards you pull. Against the Teferi, I stripped out the
Rigging Runner
s and the
Fiery Cannonade
s. I also dropped two
Ruin Raider
(which may have been a mistake because she quickly burned the one I was able to cast in game 2) and all four of the
Dire Fleet Poisoner
s--the Deathtouch would be worthless against Lyra and I don't think she would have fallen for the same attacking Freebooter trick I pulled against my first opponent to get rid of the phoenix.

Second, what plans do you have to include cards from Allegiance? The creature cards don't fit the pirate theme, but with the possibly diminishing payoff of the
Fiery Cannonade
(which may change if the is a resurgence of aggro from Rakdos or Orzhov via the Allegiance cards) would it be worth it to include some non pirate creatures?

Aside from creatures, I think both
Light Up the Stage
and
Theater of Horrors
could be viable ways to get additional card advantage. With Spectacle,
Light Up the Stage
is a cheap way to access two more cards and you have until the end of your next turn to use them.. I saw the card used to great effect in the prerelease.

Theater of Horrors
? Don't know..your opponents see all cards as they build up, but that could be to your advantage if they focus on the potentials of the exiled cards and may not anticipate cards in hand. Plus basically drawing two card every turn without worrying about hand size? Only fear is removal that kills your enchantment andthus permanently exiling everything.

Anyway, thanks again for your deck. I am more confident about trying my decks, but I may still the sirens call to go sailing some Friday night with those scurvy seadogs. :)

1 month ago

Hey Thanks man and thankyou for the upvote

I'd do some testing for yourself though, I haven't really had the opportunity to test it myself

The deck hopefully is fast enough that stuff like
Lyra Dawnbringer
will be too late hitting the board but if she is still an issue you should swap carnival out the sideboard for more removal like maybe
Murder
or
Price of Fame

1 month ago

Raise Dead
isn't a bad graveyard retrieval card, but there isn't much that's better in Standard right now; options would be
Recover
,
Soul Salvage
, and FinD.
Cast Down
hits non-legendary creatures, and
Price of Fame
hits legendary creatures for cheaper than non-legendary creatures, so they complement each other nicely. If you're willing to ramp your opponent and splash green, you can pick up
Assassin's Trophy
, although probably not on a budget.
Moment of Craving
is not a bad card; it's one of the few things that get rid of
Adanto Vanguard
cheaply (since a creature with zero or less toughness is removed from the battlefield even if it's indestructible). You might consider replacing some or all copies of it with
Vicious Offering
if you're willing to sacrifice creatures sometimes, or with
Dead Weight
for a persistent effect without the life gain. A strictly more powerful but also more expensive option is
Vraska's Contempt
. None of those cards synergize especially well with
Sengir Vampire
because Sengir Vampire is a 4/4, which means that most of the time it will either kill a creature by itself or die to it, rendering the later death of the creature meaningless since you no longer control Sengir Vampire. If you're looking for that type of synergy I recommend
Kazarov, Sengir Pureblood
, although he's very expensive mana-wise for a Standard deck (which is probably not horrible in casual play but might bite you in the butt at a tournament when he gets killed with
Price of Fame
or similar after sideboarding). As an additional recommendation that's kind of like
Moment of Craving
thematically, you might consider
Arterial Flow
(both are useful in your deck but serve different roles); there's also
Moment of Triumph
as another vampire-themed combat trick. If you like all these vampire-themed cards for flavor reasons, search through the Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan sets; they were tribal sets with Merfolk, Pirates, Vampires, and Dinosaurs as the tribes, so probably about 20% of the cards are vampire-themed in those two sets.

Price of Fame occurrence in decks from the last year

Commander / EDH:

All decks: 0,01%

Standard:

All decks: 0,16%

U/B (Dimir): 1,59%

Magic the Gathering, FNM is TM and copyright Wizards of the Coast, Inc, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This site is unaffiliated. Articles and comments are user-submitted and do not represent official endorsements of this site.